Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Harder than it looks

Where have I been all this time? Struggling to revise the requested partial of After Hours with the CEO. It seemed simple. I thought it would be. Until I tried making sense of a book that was put together one way and now had to be reconstructed with a big chunk of the motivation gone. Yikes. And yes, I know if I want to be a published author, editorial input, revisions, rewrites are part of the game.

The first draft is written from the heart, the rewrites are written with your head.

Trying to make the changes so it serves the story and the Desire premise is proving challenging. One of the criticisms of the original submission was the hero needed to be both sympathetic and alpha. When I make the changes the editor suggested, it seriously impacts his motivation, which means the inciting incident doesn't work anymore. So, I have to go back and give him different motivation that makes him look more sympathetic but still alpha - and that's tripping me up. I'm either making him too alpha - or too vulnerable.

The other problem is that I have the book written, and the editor didn't criticize the external plot, so I don't want to change the story so much, it turns into something else. Because, then, I might as well save myself the grief of tearing this one apart and just send them something else. Which, of course, I don't want to do since they liked this and took the time to make suggestions and asked to see it again.

I like black and white answers - right and wrong. That's why I became an accountant in "real" life. A balance sheet either balances or it doesn't. So you know right away if you got it right or wrong.

Commiserations Anne. Rewrites ARE hard. You summed it up perfectly in saying the first draft is your heart and rewrites are your head. Just because we know it's part of the game, doesn't make it easy. x Rach!

Hope it's going better for you now Anne a few weeks later! I look forward to the blogs about RWA in NYC -- sounds like a fun time. Although the layout Bev posted about the elevators and site made me think of a labyrinth game lol.